


Promises To Keep

by Serie11



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Any Route But Crimson Flower, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Fainting into your beloved's arms, Hurt/Comfort, Promises, magical injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21804262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: After casting a spell she shouldn’t have, Marianne is carried to the infirmary by Hilda, who has some things to say about Marianne’s decision to faint in the middle of a battle.
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund/Hilda Valentine Goneril
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41
Collections: FE3H Holiday Gift Exchange





	Promises To Keep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladyblues](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyblues/gifts).



Marianne lifts her hand to cast physic again. The spell stutters and splutters at her fingertips before dying off – she can’t remember the amount of times that she’s tried to cast already, sending waves of healing magic over the front line combatants. She can see Ashe with blood running down his side, and the failed spell leaves her feeling cold and clammy. She shouldn’t push for more, but Linhardt looks like he’s busy, and there’s another two bandits closing in on Ashe – he needs all his energy if he’s going to live his encounter with them.

She takes a deep breath and doesn’t move, closing her eyes and digging deep within herself for the swell of magic that’s normally easy to call out. She finds a hidden spring of it and digs until the power rushes forth, bitingly cold; more savage and wild than her magic normally is. Still, she wrestles it under control and sends the spell away, a healing light descending across the battlefield. The magic leaves her in a flash of power that sweeps over her and leaves her feeling icy. She shouldn’t have tried that – she’s past her limit, and anything more is probably going to have her collapse. But Raphael had been hit by that mage, and she’s too far away to get to him in time, and Linhardt is over on the other side of that huddle of trees. There hadn’t been anyone else but her, and her classmates trust her to take care of their injuries in battle. She can’t let them down.

Still, she feels woozy. The professor is just ahead, giving orders in a firm voice, surrounded by some of the church’s strongest knights. The strongest they could spare, anyway. There’s a force marching on them from the Empire, and the church has all its scouts out to try and discover the approach that Edelgard will be using. Marianne still has trouble believing that the kind woman who had helped her on several occasions would really launch a war against the church. Byleth had said that there’s much she doesn’t know of, and the past few weeks have proven that true.

They’re scouting out a narrow side valley now – Seteth had said it almost goes straight to the monastery’s doorstep, so it could be a danger. And it had turned out dangerous, alright. They’d gotten ambushed by a bandit clan about half an hour ago, and Marianne had used all her hard won knowledge to heal her friends quickly in that first minute of battle when they’d all been taken by surprise.

Her thoughts are drifting. She shakes her head, and trudges forward. There’s no one besides her this far back, and if she’s going to be of any use then she needs to move forward. That’s what she needs to do. Keep moving forward.

Why does Byleth have to run so quickly?

“Marianne!”

Startled, she nearly trips over a rock, only just managing to stay on her feet. Something blocks out the sun, and then Hilda lands her wyvern next to her, Freikugel twitching and gleaming in her hands.

“Hilda…” Marianne says. She can’t quite see her – everything’s blurry all of a sudden.

“Why are you so far back from everyone?” Hilda asks, vaulting off her wyvern. The wyvern chirps her concern, and Marianne feels the meaning somewhere deep in her gut, where she understands every animal she encounters. Normally she can even translate into words, but there’s something strange going on with her right now, and just thinking about it is making her head spin. 

“Marianne?” Hilda says, and Marianne recognises the alarm in her voice before everything stops moving and goes blessedly black.

* * *

She’s moving, and that is strange enough to drag her back to awareness. Her bed doesn’t move – so where is she sleeping?

Marianne blinks her eyes open and sees pink. A part of her recognises her girlfriend’s hair, but the logical part of her wars with that. Why would Hilda be here when Marianne is sleeping? And surely Hilda wouldn’t put up with this strange rocking…

Marianne tilts her head slightly, and the rocking stops.

“Marianne!” Hilda says, from far too close. Marianne can’t think – surely she can’t be in Hilda’s arms. Surely that can’t be happening to her. She’s fractured, close to breaking apart most days, and Hilda helps her to keep all her broken pieces close together, but this might be too much for her. In the end, Hilda will be her undoing. Hilda, and the long line of her neck and the soft perfume that Marianne can smell, and the beautiful flow of her hair.

“Marianne, can you hear me?”

“Um…” Marianne says, still calibrating. “I can hear you.”

“Okay, good,” Hilda says, some cheer coming back into her voice. “The professor said that you overtaxed yourself when healing! Everyone was in a pretty tight spot, but you should know that everyone got out fine because of you. We’re almost back at the monastery now. As soon as we’re there, we’re going to go and have Professor Manuela check you over!”

“Oh… I’m fine,” Marianne says, more out of habit than anything else. She still feels like she can’t quite thing straight.

Hilda sniffs. “Don’t be silly. You collapsed right into my arms – you definitely need to be checked by a doctor. Linhardt and Professor Byleth both said that you’re stable for now, but neither of them are the doctor of the whole monastery!”

Marianne looks up at Hilda fondly. “Thank you,” she murmurs, and tries her luck turning her face a little into Hilda’s neck. The flowery scent of her perfume is still there, but this close she can also smell the salty undertones of sweat and the deeper scent of earth and blood. Hilda had been in the thick of things when the ambush had first been sprung.

“Just as long as you’re okay,” Hilda says. “Look, there’s the monastery gates now!”

Sure enough, Marianne can see the spires just appearing as they turn a corner. It still takes her a few seconds to put the pieces together. “Hilda… did you carry me all the way from the canyon to the monastery?”

“Well,” Hilda says. “Someone had to. And it’s bad to put two people on a horse or wyvern, and you weren’t exactly in any state to sit up on a mount by yourself.”

Marianne knew that Hilda trains regularly despite claiming the opposite, but the evidence is still like someone poured a cup of water over her head. In her current state of disorientation, Marianne decides that she’ll simply put this observation away to deal with later. She can’t think about Hilda’s arm muscles right now and still be lucid.

“I see,” she says faintly. The gates of the monastery appear quickly, and Marianne looks over Hilda’s shoulder to see the rest of the class trailing along behind them. Hilda is in the lead, which means that everyone is looking at them. Marianne ducks her head back into Hilda’s neck in an attempt to hide her blush. At least they’re all far enough back that no one should have heard their conversation.

Marianne holds onto Hilda the entire way through the monastery, even though she’s awake enough that she could probably walk on her own now. Having Hilda’s arms around her isn’t something that happens often enough, and Marianne doesn’t think Hilda will have much of a cause to carry her around in the future. Just this one time, she’ll be selfish and won’t say anything. Just to have Hilda hold her for a few more minutes.

It’s still disappointing when Hilda deposits her down on one of the beds in the infirmary. Professor Manuela is already buzzing about, clinking bottles together and measuring out bundles of herbs. Marianne has been helping in the infirmary since she arrived here, but she doesn’t recognise most of the plants that the professor is collecting now.

“I knew what it was the moment I heard,” Manuela says, fussing about on her worktable. “Overuse of magic. Doesn’t happen often, because usually when your mana runs out, it runs out. It takes a special sort of determination to continue using spells when you haven’t got any energy left in you. And by special, I mean foolhardy.”

Marianne blinks up at her. Hilda is hovering near the door, eyebrows drawn together slightly.

“We were ambushed,” Marianne says slowly. “Linhardt was there as well, covering for me when I couldn’t heal fast enough. And Professor Byleth can heal, but was out on the front lines as our offensive fighter…”

“I’m not interested in your battle tactics,” Manuela sniffs. “Hilda, please stop standing there and make yourself useful by going and fetching dinner for us.”

“Us?” Hilda repeats.

Manuela waves one hand at her, casting magic with the other. “Yes, yes, I need to help Marianne. Now shoo!”

Hilda lingers for another second, but Marianne nods at her and she disappears out the door. Marianne looks down at her hands so she won’t have to look at the professor.

“Now Marianne, you’ve been studying with me for almost a year now,” Manuela says gently. “We’ve been over this. You can’t over-cast your magic, no matter how dire the situation is. It saps more than just your mana. If you regularly over-cast, it will cripple your magic. You’re talented, but that will end even your career as a mage, you understand?”

“I understand,” Marianne says quietly. “I won’t do it again.”

Manuela doesn’t say anything, and eventually Marianne has to look up to her.

“I want to believe that, but there’s a war coming,” the professor says quietly. “And I don’t think you will allow yourself to let someone fall if there’s anything you can do to help.”

Marianne folds her hands together. She knows that over using her magic can result in dire consequences, but Manuela is right. She couldn’t stand there and do nothing when someone she cared about was in danger. When _anyone_ was in danger.

Manuela sighs. “I’ll tell Byleth. They should know about this.”

Marianne can only bring herself to nod. Manuela finishes brewing up the potion she had been working on and hands it to Marianne. It’s foul, but Marianne drinks it without complaining. Just sitting here is helping her head stop spinning.

“If you’re intent on this, then instead of pushing yourself over your limit, you should increase your limit,” Manuela advises. “Training isn’t just for all those boys and their muscles you know.”

Marianne mulls over the words. Manuela goes over to keep clinking bottles together on her desk and tidying up after making the potion, but after a few more minutes she excuses herself from the infirmary, with a stern warning that Marianne should stay put and that she’ll be back soon. Marianne closes her eyes, because she’s still feeling tired, and she doesn’t want to be alone with her thoughts right now. Sleeping is far preferable.

The sound of the door opening startles her awake. Hilda walks in, expertly managing three unwieldy looking plates. “I brought food!” she says, placing one plate down on Manuela’s desk. She brings the other two over to Marianne. “How are you feeling? Can you sit up?”

“Yes,” Marianne says hesitantly, wriggling into a sitting position. Hilda hands her a plate – it’s onion gratin soup, which Marianne knows isn’t Hilda’s favourite. But Marianne likes it, so she smiles at Hilda and rewarded with Hilda smiling back.

“There you go, eat up!” Hilda tells her. “After fainting it’s good to eat so you regain all your energy.”

“Is that your professional medical opinion?” Marianne asks, hesitating only slightly before doing so. Hilda is usually good with teasing, but after having to carry her all the way back to the monastery…

Hilda lifts her chin. “It is! I’m glad to see that you’re recognising my qualifications of being a little sister to a brother that trains _way_ too hard.”

Marianne feels something in her melt at Hilda’s determined expression. She takes a bite of her food and her stomach turns greedy, demanding more. She eats like she’s starving, while Hilda takes more measured, polite bites of her food despite only the two of them being present.

When she’s done, she watches Hilda eat the rest of her food before taking a deep breath. “Thank you for watching out for me today,” Marianne says.

“You already said thank you for me carrying you back,” Hilda says, waving around her spoon.

“I meant while we were still fighting,” Marianne replies. “You were there even though there was still fighting out on the front.”

“You were falling behind,” Hilda says. She looks away, and Marianne can read the line of guilt in her pose. “I didn’t notice until the professor told me to go and check on you.”

“But you still came,” Marianne says. “So again, thank you.”

Hilda shakes her head, but she’s smiling. “You’re so cute when you say things like that. But you can’t get out of things that easily! It wasn’t just me who was worried, you know. The professor, Ignatz, Raphael, Linhardt, and a bunch others were concerned. The professor eventually said that getting you back to the monastery would be the priority since we weren’t really sure what was wrong with you, and that was the only thing that got them all to stop fussing. When you’re up on your feet again be prepared to fend off a lot of people who are going to be asking about your safety.” Hilda sucks in a gulp of air. “And you worried me, too. It was scary seeing you go down like that.”

“I’m sorry,” Marianne says, gripping the blankets in her fists. She hadn’t meant to worry anyone – she’d meant to save Ashe. But the outcome of that decision had led to her classmates’ concern. It’s… nice to know that they care, but she wishes the concern wasn’t necessary in the first place.

Hilda waves off her apology. “I know you didn’t mean to do it on purpose. Even so, it still created a lot of heartache. Promise not to worry me like that again, okay?”

Marianne thinks of Professor Manuela’s words, how they had sent a cold fear snaking through her. But looking at the shadow of fear in Hilda’s eyes, there’s only one thing that she can say.

“I’m going to get better,” Marianne vows, looking straight into Hilda’s eyes. “I’m going to practise with my magic, so that I always have enough spells to heal the people around me with. You won’t have to carry me again, Hilda.”

“That sounds like a lot of work,” Hilda remarks, leaning back on her chair. But there’s no more fear in her eyes.

“With my friends by my side, it won’t be too bad.”

Hilda raises an eyebrow. “Why, Marianne darling. You wouldn’t be implying that I help you, would you? Little me, working hard? You should know me well enough by now to know that’s not going to happen.”

“Stranger things have occured,” Marianne muses. “Besides. I can tell that soon, everything will change. We’re not going to be living in this monastery for very much longer. It’s time to start thinking about what we’re going to do after.”

“I’m glad you’re thinking of an after,” Hilda says after a few seconds. “But I have the feeling that we’re going to be hard pressed to choose our own paths. Unless we can defeat the Imperial army when they invade… there’s going to be a war.”

“I know,” Marianne says, squeezing her eyes shut. “That’s a good reason to use the time we have now to train and become stronger, isn’t it?”

“If that’s not a good enough reason, then I don’t think you’ll find a much better one,” Hilda agrees. “Okay, I’ll get stronger too. Just because you asked.”

Marianne reaches out, and Hilda takes her hand. “Okay,” Marianne echoes. “It’s a promise.”

Sitting there in the quiet with just the two of them looking into each other’s eyes, it even feels like one they can keep.

**Author's Note:**

> lmao wow when did I turn Marianne into a shounen protag?
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


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